When I told the head of an Africa-focused startup that they were in Luanda, the Angola of the US Africa Business Summit, earlier this week, their QUIP said, “So, is the US still doing business with Africa?” That tongue skepticism was absent among the nearly 3,000 people present as massive deals were announced across the continent. President Donald Trump's administration is eager to defend commercial diplomacy and “not aid,” so his top African EU adjutant Massad Boulos and retired African director Troy Fitrell fled for contract photo shoots and defended the US private sector. Witney Schneidman, a board member of the Washington-based organizer, African Corporate Council, said high attendees suggested that “new approaches are rightly timed.”
But concerns remain. The chaotic closure of USAID by Trump and Elon Musk and the still-developed humanitarian fallout in several African countries have destabilized many. It also has the potential to end AGOA's preferred trade policy, and then the overwhelming focus is on African citizens facing US visa restrictions. On the first day, new African Union Commission Chairman Mahamud Ali Yousouf condemned the Trump administration's visa and trade approach. “We've seen a lot of effort and we've seen them,” said Jackie Chimumune, South Africa regional director at the Tony Blair Institute.
Decades of American investors to Africa spoke to me on condition of anonymity, so frankly, he claims that the commercial approach has worked so far, but he still considers Trump's attitude towards Africa to be “heinous” and calls visa constraints “absurd.” He added: “Someone, maybe Boulos needs to tell him this will directly hurt our business.”
